Northampton may have blown a 10-point lead in as many minutes at the end of a typically intense east Midlands derby, but no longer are they noticeably stronger physically than they are mentally and, with Saracens, are some way ahead of the rest after the opening month of the season.

Seldom can the Leicester faithful have received a draw with such rapture, although the Tigers blew the chance to plunder an unmerited victory with the last play of the game when an attacking scrum – which looked as if it would result in yet another penalty for them – ended with the ball squirting out and Northampton seizing it.

Leicester were stronger in the set pieces, the scrum especially, but that phase of the game is in danger of going the way of the four-point drop goal. There were eight resets and nine penalties/free-kicks, while only four scrums yielded possession. Yellow cards are not being used as a deterrent, with sides still prepared to do anything other than concede prime possession to opponents.

Northampton, light in terms of pushing in the second row, struggled in the scrum all afternoon and had two fewer options in the lineout than Leicester. But the modern game is far more about the breakdown than the set pieces and the Saints so dominated that area that it took the Tigers an hour to establish an attacking foothold.

It was only when the centre Luther Burrell and the second row Courtney Lawes went off, 10 minutes from the end – the former with a sore shoulder and the latter to the sin bin for breaking too many laws – that Leicester started getting over the gain line. Northampton, in contrast, had made dents in the home defence throughout, their try on 46 minutes the result of a series of drives that started on the home 10-metre line.

The Northampton No8, Sam Dickinson, has been one of the discoveries of the season, a typhoon who plays with savage power. He may find himself having to account for his first action of the game, a high tackle on Blaine Scully that left the Leicester wing with a sore jaw and a visit to the concussion bin, but the former Rotherham forward is the ideal accompaniment to the likes of Lawes, Samu Manoa, Burrell and Dylan Hartley, immovable objects bent on destruction.

There was a period in the final quarter when Leicester, trailing by seven points and fortunate to still be in the match, mounted a sustained attack for the first time in the game, but the closer they got to the line, they less they looked like crossing it. The defensive pressure exerted by Northampton forced handling errors, with even forwards Jordan Crane and Ed Slater cracking, but the most egregious mistake was made by the large form of Vereniki Goneva, who – confronted by the form of Burrell – got rid of the ball with such haste that it went metres forward.

Northampton had lost their previous eight matches against Leicester – including last May's Premiership final, when they played the second half without their captain, Hartley, who had been sent off for crudely questioning the integrity of the referee – and in many of them they had been bullied. Not this time.

Afterwards, the Leicester assistant coach Paul Burke said his side, missing five leading players, would get better and asked whether Northampton, operating at full strength, would. But the germane point about the Saints is that, after years of failing to get a result away to their top-four rivals – 21 consecutive games without a victory – they have won at Saracens and Harlequins, and drawn here.

They have grown up and if Stephen Myler's three penalties – to two from Toby Flood – looked a meagre return for their first-half dominance, the wearing-down process was given its reward by Alex Corbisiero's try. Such was their confidence that Northampton turned down a kickable penalty 10 minutes in, after Burrell's tackle on Anthony Allen forced a turnover.

The driving maul may have gone nowhere, but Northampton made a psychological point and Leicester were inhibited until the departures of Burrell and Lawes, missing the physical thrust of Manu Tuilagi, but, more than that, lacking direction and in need of a strategist at forward. They played a second row, Ed Slater, in the back row, which cost them three early points when he was slow getting up from a scrum and missed a tackle on Dickinson.

Flood missed two penalties, which also looked like being costly with 10 minutes to go. Then Lawes was sent to the sin bin – Northampton's seventh yellow card this season, with Burrell given 10 minutes off in the first half for a tip tackle on Allen – along with his opposite number Louis Deacon, who gave the referee unsolicited advice.

Flood kicked the Lawes penalty, which was not reversed as Northampton felt it should have been, and then came a final assault. Flood was tackled by Manoa just short of the line, but, for once, Leicester got the ball away smartly and Slater scored to give his side an uneven draw.